Male’, Maldives – The Finance Ministry of Maldives reveals that this year’s domestic debt had increased by 20% till June.
The statistics of June revealed by the Finance Ministry showed that the total debt of Maldives till the month of June this year was at around MVR 74.3 Billion. This is an increase by MVR 10,655 million compared to the debt till June 2019.
This was mainly due to the domestic debt in the country and disbursements under previously issued publicly guaranteed loans during this period. The statistics showed that domestic debt increased by 20% over this time period and the publicly guaranteed debt had increased by 32%.
According to the Finance Ministry, the increase in the domestic debt is mainly due to the issuance of treasury bills worth USD 150 million or MVR 2,311.5 million given by the Male’ Branch of State Bank of India.
Along with this, the statistics shows that the direct external debt of Maldives had also increased by 2% during this period. This was due to the payment made for the development of a terminal in Velena International Airport.
The VIA terminal project had added MVR 284 million to the direct external total debt of this period.
The statistics further revealed that by the end of June 2020, the country’s total debt to GDP stood at a whooping 128%. The sudden increase in the debt to GDP was due to the sudden decline in GDP Maldives had faced due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The GDP of Maldives had declined by 33% till June this year compared to the debt to GDP in June 2019.
The Ministry revealed that the government of Maldives has taken several measures and steps to improve the debt management function in the country as an attempt to decrease the amount of debts the country owes.
